EMAIL RECIPIENTS PLEASE READ: You are receiving this email newsletter
because you are a BB member or have asked to be added to our distribution
list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, use the change form available from our
Homepage at http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org. You cannot send email to this
newsletter. If you have problems receiving the newsletter as email, it may
be read, downloaded, printed or copied from the BB Homepage. There is also
an archive of previous newsletters.

This section of our 1-section newsletter concerns:

1. BB VP & BG Liaison Klaus Gerger To Visit

2. Correspondent Writes About Immigrant Father

3. History Of Urbersdorf

4. Leuchs Directory (1899-1904)

1. BB VP & BG LIAISON KLAUS GERGER TO VISIT

Klaus Gerger will again visit the United States. This time he says he wants
to show his teen-aged daughters Viki and Eva the "Amerika" of their family
immigrants and allow them to meet their distant cousins. They have a full
schedule beginning August 5 which includes Washington, Northern Virginia
(Winchester August 7), Allentown (August 8-11), New York-Flushing,
Albany-East Greenbush (August 12-16), Niagara (August 17-19), Detroit and
Chicago (August 20-26).

They have arranged to meet relatives and some of the BB staff, but if any BB
members wish to see them, they will attend two public events in the Lehigh
Valley at the Edelweisshaus (Northampton, PA) on Friday August 8th and at
the Coplay, PA Sängerbund on Sunday 11th. For the daughters, this will be
the trip of a lifetime.

This reminds me of my visits to the Burgenland where we did just the
opposite-seeing Burgenland and visiting distant relatives. I can assure you,
there is nothing like it.

2. CORRESPONDENT WRITES ABOUT IMMIGRANT FATHER

I want to thank you for the many interesting items in this month's
Burgenland Bunch Newsletter No. 175. There were two instances that were of
personal interest to me.

Section 1, Number 3 of the last newsletter spoke of the displacement of the
German people from that section of Poland which was formerly Silesia
(Schlesien). This is the land from which my mother immigrated in 1924, but
left behind many relatives. These relatives had to leave their homeland with
just the clothes on their backs and trek westward across Germany to where
they finally settled in West Germany. They lost everything and all they
owned was confiscated.

Section 2, Number 7, spoke of military service during the reign of Emperor
Franz Josef. My father, Anton Hirschbeck from Burgauberg was conscripted at
the age of 21 in 1909 and served three years during peacetime. During that
time, he served in several places: Sopron, Szombathely and Vienna. When
World War I was declared, he was among the first to be called back. He
served on the Eastern Front, mainly in Poland. He was captured by the
Russians and sent to Minsk and from there was transported via the
Trans-Siberian Railroad to Chita and the Baikal Sea in Siberia. From there
he was sent back to the Ural Mountains where he was assigned to a lumber
camp near Ekaterinenburg. This was around the time that the Czar and his
family were murdered there. My father, with a few others, escaped the camp
with the help of the revolutionaries and made their way back to Austrian
lines, traveling only at night so as not to be detected. When he reported
what had happened, they told him there were no other survivors from his
unit. He was sent home on a month's leave (urlaub) but in the meantime, the
war ended with just a couple of days left before he was scheduled to return
to service. In 1922, he emigrated to the U.S. and settled in the Bronx where
his sister lived.

These are memories that I have of my father as we sat after supper and he
told of his life in Austria. These memories give me a very close bond with
Burgenland. I don't know if any of this would be of interest to put into a
newsletter, but I felt the need to write to you with this account of part of
his life. I was and am proud to be his daughter. Each month I look forward
to receiving the Burgenland Bunch Newsletters and I thank you so much for
making this possible.

Helen Boss

3. HISTORY OF URBERSDORF (from Klaus Gerger)

A few weeks ago, this book was published. The book tells the history of this
small village from its beginnings to the present. The text is all German.
There are 235 pages and many photos and reproductions. Within a short time
this book was sold out. It is now necessary to print a 2nd edition. If you
are interested in a copy, please contact the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft
() before end of September. The book costs Euro 15, -
plus shipping.

This is the table of contents:

INHAlTSVERZEICHNIS

Geleitworte

Historische Entwicklung von Urbersdorf

Die Anfänge von Urbersdorf

Herrschaften im Grenzraum

Die grundherrschaftliche Ordnung

Urbare und Konskriptionen (Steuerverzeichnisse)

Die Entwicklung des Grundbesitzes bis 1848

Maria Theresianische Reformen

Bauernbefreiung

Urbarialgemeinde

Das Werden des Burgenlandes

1938 - 1945

Russische Besatzung

Die Gemeindeverwaltung von 1945 - 1971

Urbersdorf - Ortsteil der Großgemeinde Güssing

Bahnlinie

Sanköhaz und Limbachhof

Ortsbeschreibungen

Ortsansichten früher und heute

Ortsnamenformen

Bevölkerungsentwicklung

Bauweise der Häuser früher und heute

Gewerbe ab 1922

Entwicklung der Landwirtschaft

Kulturflächen in der Katastralgemeinde Urbersdorf

Entwicklung der Landwirtschaft im 20. Jahrhundert

Betriebsstruktur

Nutztierhaltung

Arbeiten in der Landwirtschaft

Amerikawanderung

Brauchtum

Hochzeiten früher und heute

Geschichte der Kirche

Tod und Begräbnis

Volksschule

Solar und Biomasseanlage der Fernwärme

Freiwillige Feuerwehr

Ortsweinbauverein

Verschönerungsverein

"Die Jugend"

Jagd, Jagdausschuss, Jagdgesellschaft

Hobbysportverein

Der Stausee

Anhang: Urbersdorfer Mundart

Quellenverzeichnis

4. LEUCHS DIRECTORY (1899-1904) (courtesy of BB staff)

Contributing Editor Margaret Kaiser writes: I found something of interest.
Ancestry has the following address book on-line:

Comitat Vas begins on page 1060a and runs to page 1092a. There are many
Burgenland towns listed, for example, Jennersdorf, Eltendorf, Kukmirn,
Lockenhaus, Pinkafeld, Heiligenkreuz, Rabafüzes, Rechnitz, Stegersbach,
Tatzmannsdorf (includes an article about Heilquellen fuer Trinkkur, etc.),
Stadt Schlaining, Eisenburg and many more places. There is also a section
for Moson Comitat.

As one would expect, larger locations, such as Körmend and Güssing have a
great many more listings (a page or more).

Now here is the question: How can we best use this information relative to
BB? Does Tom want to use this information in the town lists. Some other way?
Shall I write an article on how to access this information for the
newsletter?

I am copying Maureen as I see many Jewish surnames listed which may be of
interest to her with her project.

Please consider and advise. I can probably send you a sample page (just
indicate a town you would be interested in seeing). Some of these Comitats
are likely Croat; so you can ask for one of these if you can tell me the
Comitat you are interested in.

So put your thinking caps on and let me know your advice. Whatever we do
with it, could amount to a great deal of labor, but fun and hopefully
informative research-wise.

Contributing Editor Fritz Königshofer replies: This looks like a "Yellow
Pages," but actually with more info than a normal Yellow Pages.

Villages Editor Tom Steichen replies: Village "description" information,
quite similar to what is here, can be found elsewhere online and/or is
already incorporated into the Village pages or the village descriptions.
What is unique is the connection of family names to particular businesses or
types of business. Such "turn-of-the century" information could be
interesting to many Burgenland family researchers. We already list some
family names associated with particular villages in particular time periods
but all precede this period by one or more generations.

I do not have an Ancestry account, so do not have access and thus will not
be transcribing such info. However, if anyone wants to take on such a
project, I would be pleased to add an appropriate list of names with
occupation/business in ~1900 to existing village histories (should someone
create such lists).

P.S. I very recently learned that a widowed great-aunt in North Dakota
supported her family of 4 young children by running a grocery store after
her farmer husband was accidentally shot to death at a wedding celebration.
That bit of knowledge provided closure on a question that had bugged me for
a number of years. So, yes, I personally know the value of such info!

Margaret writes again: OK - Here is a sample of a complete town entry:

Editorial note: Since this exchange in early July, Margaret has transcribed
and Tom has added the "Leuchs Adressbuch" data to the online Village
Histories of 37 villages. An additional 30 entries have been transcribed and
are being formatted currently. Additional entries will be transcribed and
formatted as time permits.

END OF NEWSLETTER

NOTICE (Terms and Conditions): The Burgenland Bunch (BB) was formed and
exists to assist Burgenland descendants in their research into their
heritage and, toward that end, reserves the right to use any communication
you have with us (email, letter, phone conversation, etc.) as part of our
information exchange and educational research efforts.

. If you do not want your communication to be used for this purpose,
indicate that it is "confidential" and we will abide by that request.

. Correspondents who communicate with the BB without requesting
confidentiality retain their copyright but give a non-exclusive license to
the BB allowing us to forward to BB members, publish in our monthly
newsletter or on our website and/or subsequently and permanently archive all
or parts of such communications.